June 9, 2013 Rodney Koeneke Part 2

After tackling some technically difficulties, it was our pleasure to play the second half of our interview with poet Rodney Koeneke. He shared how he constructed his upcoming book Etruria (Wave Books, 2014), and the diverse array of source material that finds its way into his work. Rodney thinks of his poems as 'complete thoughts/songs;' he works in singularity as opposed to series. In discussing his editing process, he talked about how the bulk of his poem is a way of investigating or 'puzzle over the why' of how he came to find something interesting. At the top of the hour, in the studio, we wondered how much collage plays a part in Rodney's work, and even where writing from a place of possessing diverse and expansive knowledge that just finds its way into the work ends and collage begins. Rodney's poems have 'time signatures,' that is, references to technology and contemporary phenomena. Poetry that includes these references is new to us in both reading and writing. We considered how Flarf strays from the lyrical tradition. How liberating! When we returned to Rodney's interview, he talked about how he took part in the Bay Area writing community. He read some newer work that will be published in a chapbook by Hook Press. We ended by talking about Rodney's online presence; check him out on Goodreads! After the interview, Jay read a Amazon review by Bay Area's own Kevin Killian.
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